- Joined
- Jun 4, 2002
- Messages
- 3,930
Three tasty acquisitions at the gun show this weekend. A beautiful old puukko from Brusletto of Norway, with hand done "folk" decoration in tooling and woodburning on the birch handle and leather scabbard. The blade is laminated high carbon steel that took an edge so keen I can literally shave my ugly mug with it.
Got an old, old, sheath knife, sans sheath, from Sweden. Stacked leather handle with silver pommel and brass cross guard that incorporates a cap lifter on the top quillon (practical people those Swedes, one should never be without a bottle opener in a land where twist tops are a relatively new development, the guy that sold it to me couldn't decide whether it was bent or made that way, when I told him what it actually was his eyes lit up and a grin creased his face, tickled him so much he knocked off five bucks just for the "education"). The blade is well patinated, has some pitting, but shined up beautifully, and oh my lord is it some hard, tough, steel. Unlaminated, high carbon, and perfect distal taper from guard to tip.
Last, but not least was a good old German straight razor marked "Kropp" on one side of the shank, and "Ground in Hamburg" on the other. The excellent, double hollow ground, blade bore the charming inscription "Farmer Colchester" (whatever the blazes that refers to). Sharpened up sweet, shaved with it this morning, and it confirmed my belief that the old razors are still the best because they were made back in a time when everyman used one. Back then they weren't "novelties" like they've become since disposable razor blades came along. In their day, they were "state of the art" in everything from steel composition to grinding methods. If you find a straight razor you're thinking about buying, run your thumb across the edge (not along it, across it ). Any old razor worth having will be made of such fine steel and so well ground that it will quite literally "sing" when you do that. If it don't sing don't buy it.
Yessir, good old steel. You could very safely say, "they don't make 'em like that anymore". Best part is while I watched nimrods plunking down serious folding green on rubber handled, stainless steel bladed, pieces of crap at the gun show, I came away with my treasures to the following tune; "Folk decorated" Brusletto= $25 , cool old Swede knife=$22, and almost embarrassingly, great old German razor= $18. That's a total of 65 bucks, about 30 bucks less than the average, near useless, "tactical knife", would have run me. Think I'll invest the 30 bucks wisely in some good old "kidney flushin' compound", aka water blessed by hops and barley. First, best put away all the sharp shiny things.
Sarge
Got an old, old, sheath knife, sans sheath, from Sweden. Stacked leather handle with silver pommel and brass cross guard that incorporates a cap lifter on the top quillon (practical people those Swedes, one should never be without a bottle opener in a land where twist tops are a relatively new development, the guy that sold it to me couldn't decide whether it was bent or made that way, when I told him what it actually was his eyes lit up and a grin creased his face, tickled him so much he knocked off five bucks just for the "education"). The blade is well patinated, has some pitting, but shined up beautifully, and oh my lord is it some hard, tough, steel. Unlaminated, high carbon, and perfect distal taper from guard to tip.
Last, but not least was a good old German straight razor marked "Kropp" on one side of the shank, and "Ground in Hamburg" on the other. The excellent, double hollow ground, blade bore the charming inscription "Farmer Colchester" (whatever the blazes that refers to). Sharpened up sweet, shaved with it this morning, and it confirmed my belief that the old razors are still the best because they were made back in a time when everyman used one. Back then they weren't "novelties" like they've become since disposable razor blades came along. In their day, they were "state of the art" in everything from steel composition to grinding methods. If you find a straight razor you're thinking about buying, run your thumb across the edge (not along it, across it ). Any old razor worth having will be made of such fine steel and so well ground that it will quite literally "sing" when you do that. If it don't sing don't buy it.
Yessir, good old steel. You could very safely say, "they don't make 'em like that anymore". Best part is while I watched nimrods plunking down serious folding green on rubber handled, stainless steel bladed, pieces of crap at the gun show, I came away with my treasures to the following tune; "Folk decorated" Brusletto= $25 , cool old Swede knife=$22, and almost embarrassingly, great old German razor= $18. That's a total of 65 bucks, about 30 bucks less than the average, near useless, "tactical knife", would have run me. Think I'll invest the 30 bucks wisely in some good old "kidney flushin' compound", aka water blessed by hops and barley. First, best put away all the sharp shiny things.
Sarge
